Life was supposed to be about embracing the crazy, she reminded herself. Hadn’t she told herself that exact thing just this morning?

“Fine,” she said, turning back to Bryn with a sigh of resignation. “I’ll come to your ball.”

*

Bryn was right about one thing, Keira discovered later that evening; Gino’s looked amazing. The whole restaurant had been decorated to look like a gothic castle, the tables pushed to the perimeter so that the middle part was a dance floor. There was an incredibly creepy vibe, with old Italian folk music, waiters in velvet suits, and of course, everyone in masquerade masks.

If it had just been the two of them, Keira would have had a great night. But unfortunately, they were sharing their evening with Malcolm, Bryn’s date, and Glen, Keira’s date. They must have been two of the most boring men in the world.

Keira forked her pasta, barely able to keep herself awake, as Glen explained more details about his career in accounting. Work chat annoyed Keira at the best of times, but when it involved math the boringness was stepped up another notch. Not to mention he hadn’t actually asked her a single question about her job.

There was a sudden lull in the conversation and Keira sat up as though startled awake.

“So, what do you do in your spare time?” she asked Glen, desperate to steer the conversation elsewhere.

Glen took a long time to answer, another thing Keira took as a bad sign. Who didn’t know what hobbies they had? Or what they enjoyed doing other than their jobs?

“I watch sports,” he said, finally.

“Watch,” Keira repeated. “Not play?”

Glen laughed. “Hell no. I don’t want an injury. I prefer to be a spectator.”

“That’s…” Keira struggled for a word. The one she landed on was probably the opposite of what she meant. “...interesting.”

“What about you?” Glen asked.

It was the first time he’d asked her about herself, and Keira was almost surprised. “Oh, well, I’m in journalism so I spend a lot of my spare time reading,” she began.

Glen cut her off immediately. “I read, too. The Wall Street Journal mainly.”

Realizing her time to speak had been snatched from her, Keira felt her chest sink. She prodded her pasta again. “Cool.”

Bryn leaned across the table then. “We were just talking about plans,” she said. “What we want to achieve in five years. Keira, what about you?”

If Bryn had asked her yesterday Keira would have been certain that what she wanted in the next five years was to spend as much time as possible with Shane. Buy their dream house together. Maybe even marry and have some kids. But that dream was dashed now.

Keira just shrugged. “I’d like to travel. See the world. In five years’ time I want to have set foot on every continent at least once.”

Bryn clapped. “That’s a great one, sis.”

Glen scoffed. “Traveling is so overrated these days, now that we have the technology to map everything. I mean why spend hours in an aluminum tube flying through the sky, polluting the atmosphere, when you can see the world from the comfort of your own home? Virtual reality is in its infancy at the moment, but within five years it’s going to take off. A fifty-dollar headset will take the place of hundreds of dollars wasted on flights.”